Microsoft SQL Server Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 8.7 out of 10

Score

8.7 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Microsoft SQL Server are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Ease of Use and Integration: Users have consistently found the software easy to use, praising its simple design and common interface. They also appreciate its seamless integration capabilities with various frameworks and tools like Visual Studio, Dot Net, MSBI, PowerBI, Crystal Reports, etc.

Reliability and Performance: Reviewers have highlighted the software's reliability in handling high volume transactions and data staging operations. They also value its fast performance, intuitive SQL coding experience, efficient data table management, and quick information filtering capabilities.

Data Management Capabilities: Users have praised the software for its functionalities as a relational database server and its support for OEM applications. They particularly appreciate its features for data storage, manipulation, scalability options, quick data analysis abilities, troubleshooting tools availability, and maintenance procedures.

Reviews

107 Reviews

Microsoft SQL Server Review

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 24, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use microsoft sql server Management Studio and it's being used across the whole organization. It comes with the Microsoft security which makes it very reliable. We have a large QA team and microsoft sql server Management Studio allows us to copy and recreate servers as local servers very easily. This creates a "playground" in which QA and developers can test and create new features without affecting the production environment.

Pros

Easy to clone servers and set up local dummy servers
Easy to back up all information and write tables with all the data as a script
Very flexible in exporting data from a wide range of files

Cons

Add more files that can be exported into SQL
Allow for more than one local server to be able to be set up

Likelihood to Recommend

It is most appropriate for large scale companies, with lots of sensible data and many different users working on the same server.

Marco Lostaunau

C# .NET Developer in Information Technology at Easy Expunctions (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Happy SQL Server user since version 1.11 on OS/2 1.21

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SQL Server is being used across the entire organization in my previous company, along with Oracle. It's being used for our POS system, our website, and dozens of internal applications. It's very easy to install and configure so we can rapidly deploy it for new applications. It can also be considerably cheaper than Oracle.

Pros

It's very easy to automate the install so we have a website set up where an application team can go and within a few mouse clicks, they've requested a new VM with SQL Server installed on it. The VM itself can take a day or two to deployment because it's not fully automated yet, but SQL Server is automatically installed within an hour or two.
All the different wizards within SQL Server Management Studio make it relatively easy for non DBAs to perform many tasks, thus making self-service possible in many instances.
The Always On Availability Group feature makes both High Availability and Disaster Recovery much easier to plan and implement, especially with SQL Server 2014's multiple secondaries.
The Database Tuning Advisor can also help relative novices tune their queries for better performance, though it can still recommend way too many indexes be created.

Cons

SQL Server needs something to compare/compete with Oracle's RAC. When is that coming, Microsoft?
I don't care for the evolution of its pricing model. SQL Server used to be a no-brainer when compared to other products on price but that's not the case anymore.

Likelihood to Recommend

I wouldn't move to SQL Server just because management or reviewers said to. I would go with the expertise you have in house. If you have a bunch of Oracle experts and no SQL Server experts, I'd go with Oracle. However, if you've got even one SQL Server expert, you should know that one SQL Server expert can probably handle a lot more SQL Servers than a single Oracle expert can.

Verified User

Professional in Information Technology (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

25 years of experience

Small to mid-sized business review of Microsoft SQL Server

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Microsoft SQL Server almost exclusively as our database solution.

Pros

SQL Server Management Studio provides an excellent UI for developing in SQL
SQL Server integrates well into the other business intelligence components of the Microsoft suite (e.g. SSRS, Integration Services, PowerPivot, etc.)

Cons

My main issues with SQL were related to limitations in programability. For instance, it was once cumbersome to build things like running totals. However, recent releases (e.g. SQL 2012) have addressed some of these limitations

Likelihood to Recommend

Microsoft SQL is very-well suited for any small to mid-sized company. I don't have experienced with very large roll outs so I cannot speak to performance on a large scale. However, I have found MS SQL to be near-perfect for our institution. The reality of it is the business world is still well rooted in Microsoft products. Having MS SQL allows us to integrate easily with products like Microsoft Excel. Additionally, MS SQL has many front-end tools that allow for the automation of maintenance plans and monitoring. This is especially good for small to mid-sized companies that often find their IT personnel stretched thin. Finally, MS SQL is not as cost-prohibitive as some of the larger database solutions.

Verified User

Technician in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Microsoft SQL Server Hands Down Over Oracle

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The organization has implemented an ERP system that has a Microsoft SQL Server backend. We also use Microsoft SQL Server for business reporting, analytics and intelligence.

Pros

The relational database management system is easy to use in designing database objects, including primary and foreign keys, constraints, default values, triggers, etc.
Microsoft SQL Server is great at processing sets of data.
Microsoft SQL Server's transactional structured query language (T-SQL) is very easy to use for ad-hoc queries as well as for designed database programs for database and application maintenance, operations and reporting.

Cons

The cost of Microsoft SQL Server is often not feasible for smaller businesses.
I'd like to see source control integrated into SQL Server, so that all changes to the database objects are automatically versioned and stored for reference or retrieval.

Likelihood to Recommend

In my opinion and experience Microsoft SQL Server is ALWAYS well suited, if the database is designed and configured appropriately.

Todd McDaniel

Senior SQL Server DBA in Information Technology at Florida Family Insurance (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

16 years of experience

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SQL Server from a mid-level DBA perspective

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SQL Server is used throughout the organization in differing capacities. Research and Development uses it to develop new software and to fix previously coded bugs or issues. Our software communicates with a SQL server database that has almost 1000 tables with varying relationships and data amount. Support uses SQL to log customer/client issues and to see what clients have downloaded what products and who the contacts are that are viewing our released software from the Salesforce website which communicates with a local SQL database we have on site. Our Professional services team will configure databases in SQL server at client sites to help set up a new client or to solve issues that the client is encountering.

Pros

Handle large amounts of data. SQL can process thousands of rows of data in a pinch when given the correct hardware to utilize. SQL likes memory and it will utilize it very efficiently when given the chance.
SQL provides at least 2 methods to do everything. You can write simple SQL query scripts or you can use the built-in GUI (which coincidentally just runs SQL scripts behind the scenes).
Allows for jobs to be setup that can do simple tasks such as database backups, database restores, export and import data and even send out notifications when SQL Server encounters a problem.
Integrates with a lot of other programs and software. Microsoft allows SQL Server to integrate with Visual Studio and you can utilize SQL tools with SSIS, SSMS, SSAS, and SSRS to get deep into integration tools, Analyzing data, and reporting on various data in each database. You can also integrate with third party tools such as the suite of products from RedGate.

Cons

Speed up installation times. A manual installation of SQL server can take up a good chunk of time. You can be forced to go through an installation wizard screen by screen and it can take a lot of time waiting for each screen to load.
Allow for easier integration with GUI's. SQL has the capability to use a visual query builder where you can drag and drop fields, tables, etc to build a query but it is not as user friendly as you would imagine.
Make the permissions more stream lined. Users can have permissions to a SQL Server but not a particular database and trying to find the right spot to add the correct permissions can be painful for someone who is new to SQL Admin work.

Likelihood to Recommend

The larger the database and project the more efficient it will be if kept running smoothly. Small projects/businesses will find SQL Server useful also but for the cost of licenses it may not be as cost effective as some would like. Also if your business depends on the data in the database or server you will want a full time DBA to watch over the Server (both the hardware and software of the server) to insure you don't have any data integrity or security issues.

Bill Starling

Database Administrator in Research & Development at Aderant (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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The giant RDBMS by Microsoft

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

<div>I use SQL Server for 7 years.</div><div>I currently work in the Database Administrators department, we mainly use SQL every day. We use SQL for various needs, some examples: the management of corporate databases, for ETL processes (extract, transform, load) for data warehousing, data historicizing, reporting, OLAP cubes, dashboards, maintenance plans, monitoring and alert, the management of integration services packages and more.</div>

Pros

Management of very large volumes of data such as bulk loading
Is one of the best (if not the best) relational database
It brings you great ETL tools and data warehousing such as SSIS and SSAS
Data indexing

Cons

The management of VLDB (Very Large Databases) requires a lot of maintenance and preventive work to avoid falling into uncomfortable issues.
The introduction of In-Memory (sql 2014) has opened up new prospects but still has many limitations (data types, functions and various restrictions)
Table partitioning is as useful as awkward to handle.

Likelihood to Recommend

<div>SQL Server is suitable for any company, anyone who has the need to keep and maintain sensitive data, can safely rely on SQL (available in different versions depending on your budget and needs).</div><div>Is less appropriate, however, if you want to handle a small amount of data, or if you use want to cache data (for sites) or data that don't need to be static and maintained for a long time, in these cases you can take into account of commonly said DB No-Sql.</div>

Luca Campanelli

Database Administrator in Information Technology at Intralot Italia S.p.A. (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

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MS SQL Server is my favorite DBMS for more than 13 years

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use MS SQL Server 2008R2-2012 as a data storage in our EDMS for our major client from the government.

Pros

Best out-of-the-box tools among enterprise scale DBMSs. SQL Management Studio is one of the best tools for almost all day-to-day tasks including deployment and support. In conjunction with other standard MS SQL Server tools it outperforms most other DBMSs I ever saw, including but not limiting Oracle and DB2.
Very powerful T-SQL.
Lots of data migration tools for easy integration with other data sources.
Great stability.
Native support by Visual Studio including database projects. You can deploy database updates even to production environment with literally 2-3 clicks. You may also generate diff script for manual analysis and deployment.

Cons

Price may seem tough.
Security model is a bit strange to get started but once you know a few particularities then nothing stops you from day-to-day tasks.

Likelihood to Recommend

Technically MS SQL Server suits almost all middle-to-large use cases. However, be careful with high load scenarios and big non-relational data - you may get stuck with huge backups.

Verified User

Team Lead in Engineering (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

16 years of experience

MS SQL server

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

February 15, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is used across the whole organization to build analytical tools for the business users to best analyze the sales data.

Pros

Sql Server Integration services is a a great tool for ETL needs
SQL Server Analysis Services is a great tool to build data marts and data cubes.
SQL Server Reporting Services is a great reporting tool.

Cons

SQL server installation always takes long time, that can be definitely improved.
The Management Studio front end still needs work as does Indexing.
Few in SSIS Realtime data refresh in SSRS More datasources in Power BI

Likelihood to Recommend

Volume of the data, it cannot store as much data as Oracle or Teradata does.

Srikanth S

Sr MS SQL BI Developer in Sales at Georgia-Pacific LLC (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

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Good database engine

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

January 8, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft SQL Server is being used on different projects for different customers. I had a chance to use this software several times and it left a very good impression. Microsoft SQL Server has a good set of tools for developers, its T-SQL language is convenient. Microsoft SQL Server can be used both by medium and large size enterprise applications and is pretty easy to scale out using techniques like replication, clustering etc.

Pros

Good query optimizer. For complex a query it provides helpful tools like Query Tuning Advisor.
Reliable database engine.
Many options for replications.
Good additional out-of-box features like Integration services, Analysis services and Reporting services.

Cons

No integration with source control like Microsoft TFS.
Intellisense can be improved further.

Likelihood to Recommend

Definitely recommend for enterprise application. Do not recommend for small companies - better to use MySQL.

Alexander Goryainov

Senior Software Engineer in Information Technology at Luxoft USA Inc. (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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SQL Server Just Works

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 6, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SQL Server is our relational and structured storage tool of choice. We use it to manage multiple resources within the organization from sales data to telemetry data on the software that we create to reporting and managing data for multiple departments. We also develop software in support of SQL Server that helps manage, maintain, develop and deploy SQL Server. SQL Server is a fundamental part of our business.

Pros

SQL Server is first a relational management engine. It stores and manages relational data extremely well.
SQL Server is highly scalable. With correctly designed databases and well-tuned queries, we're able to store and retrieve data at almost any scale.
SQL Server is highly ubiquitous. Almost every development tool and language can be used to build software with it. Almost any reporting tool can be used to retrieve information from it.

Cons

Deployments of changes to existing databases can be challenging. Better support within the tool for language constructs in assistance of deployments would be helpful.
Development processes such as using source control to build your databases is not a native part of the tool set.
Query tuning is difficult for those who don't have specialized knowledge.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's all about relational storage. There it shines and will do exactly what you need. For non-relational storage you may be better off with another tool such as DocumentDB. The ability to set up hybrid environments within SQL Server using local machines, virtual machines on services such as Azure or Amazon Web Services, and platform as a service offerings such as Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL Data Warehouse, all of which are the same SQL Server engine, makes for a very complete experience.

Grant Fritchey

Product Evangelist in Information Technology at Redgate Software (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

22 years of experience

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SQL Server from a mid-level DBA perspective

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Handle large amounts of data. SQL can process thousands of rows of data in a pinch when given the correct hardware to utilize. SQL likes memory and it will utilize it very efficiently when given the chance.
SQL provides at least 2 methods to do everything. You can write simple SQL query scripts or you can use the built-in GUI (which coincidentally just runs SQL scripts behind the scenes).
Allows for jobs to be setup that can do simple tasks such as database backups, database restores, export and import data and even send out notifications when SQL Server encounters a problem.
Integrates with a lot of other programs and software. Microsoft allows SQL Server to integrate with Visual Studio and you can utilize SQL tools with SSIS, SSMS, SSAS, and SSRS to get deep into integration tools, Analyzing data, and reporting on various data in each database. You can also integrate with third party tools such as the suite of products from RedGate.

Cons

Speed up installation times. A manual installation of SQL server can take up a good chunk of time. You can be forced to go through an installation wizard screen by screen and it can take a lot of time waiting for each screen to load.
Allow for easier integration with GUI's. SQL has the capability to use a visual query builder where you can drag and drop fields, tables, etc to build a query but it is not as user friendly as you would imagine.
Make the permissions more stream lined. Users can have permissions to a SQL Server but not a particular database and trying to find the right spot to add the correct permissions can be painful for someone who is new to SQL Admin work.

Likelihood to Recommend

Bill Starling

Database Administrator in Research & Development at Aderant (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile